Football Manager 26 Review, Gameplay Impressions, Features and Videos

Football Manager 26 from developer Sports Interactive and SEGA marks the return of a powerhouse series to the sporting realm. 

Major expectations chase this year's edition of the beloved football management simulation to release, considering Football Manager 25 was outright canceled last year, effectively due to not meeting expectations during the transition to a new game engine. 

Now, the spotlight shines not just on how things run under the new engine, but how a year's hiatus has helped or hurt the experience and what modes and features did or didn't survive the transition. 

A welcome return, Football Manager 26 has a chance to set the tone for the series after the absence, presenting a rare chance for a sports game series to reset. 

Graphics and Gameplay

In a first for the series, Football Manager 26 turns away from the custom game engine used in the past for Unity. 

It's a major change that permeates the entire experience, for better or worse. 

The result is, in a word, profound, at least for this particular series on the pitch. Even pulling up a side-by-side comparison video shows a fresh twist on basic things like ball physics and overall animations, whether it's off-ball happenings or right at the point of attack. 

Overall, it's abundantly clear this is the best the series has ever looked on the pitch itself. It's not competing for the top-in-class spot among all sports games, but has never really aimed to, either. 

That's not a knock. Players are expressive, the movements accurate, the scope of stadiums and swell of crowds massive. Even some of the camera angles and hints of broadcast stylings feel fresh. It certainly doesn't hurt that the careful attention to detail in the sound design remains. The tried-and-true gameplay that is spreadsheet managing and more strategic in-moment analysis than quick-twitch controls on the pitch itself returns and feels great, as expected. 

It's the big gameplay upgrade that really steals the spotlight, though. 

The match engine is complete with a fantastic new in-possession and out-of-possession tactics loop. The split is new and refreshing, among many other possible positive words here. At its most basic, this is tweaking formations and specific player roles in and out of possession. 

Helpfully, the decisions made on the tactics front gets reflected on an almost sort of heatmap in real time, giving visuals to an overarching strategy in real time. 

Otherwise, the careful minding of player training, tactics, and on the front office side, personnel decisions like transfers and overarching important details like club finances remain critical parts of the experience.  

Unfortunately, things go a little off the rails in the revamped user interface (UI), where players effectively move through spreadsheets and spend the bulk of their time. 

The overarching idea is a "windows" or "tiles" system that creates new pop-ups when progressing through pages. But Windows, like the polarizing operating system, and pop ups, like things users put ad-blockers on, tend to draw negative reactions for a reason. 

Here, some things just straight-up don't work, like the back button, at times. Sometimes clicking a button doesn't enact a change, or won't until another button or two gets hit. 

There are little hiccups in simple formatting, too, like text running outside of boxes or even overlapping. Updates and time will fix some, if not all of the issues plaguing the game at launch, but for a game that largely lives and dies in its UI, it's a little jarring to see this area struggle so much.

Problems aside, the game does give players power over this updated user interface, too, even permitting them to bookmark important things or outright customize their dashboard. 

Career and More

There's a deeper manager creator experience than before, which is nice. It's very much an RPG. Picking coaching styles from a big list, then mental styles are background setting that dictate where things flow from there. 

Beyond that, putting a personal stamp on the character with a robust set of visual options and background information is both necessary and appreciated. 

The game benefits from expanded, real-world licensing, especially on the women's football side of things. Onlookers will find nitpicks, but what's here adds some serious authenticity to the whole thing. 

Of note, the recruiting overhaul really spices up the transfer window's enjoyment and strategy required to find success. 

New helpful panels like recruitment objectives guarantee players can see what both the board above them and the fans around them want from transfer windows. 

The TransferRoom partnership that helps players advertise needs is smooth to the point other sports games will hopefully lean into for their own career modes. There's something to be said for the smoothness of making an advertisement, seeing what other clubs actually need and what names a player already has out on offer. 

Thankfully, scouting reports and footballer searches include the new in-and-out-of-possession functions. 

Beyond the basics, one doesn't have to look far on the internet for the many "missing" things from past games in the series. Tops among those is international management, which is slated to be added post-launch around the World Cup, meaning potentially next June. 

Some of the game's many issues in the menus and in-game overlays will get ironed out over patches. And some of it is just players needing to retrain muscle memory, no doubt. Just how much and when the game eventually addresses player feedback or pushes them to upgrades for a possible 2027 edition remains to seen, though. 

There's a nice tutorial system in place, at least, with a robust list of options in the menus. It runs well on the pitch itself, too, which was a nice pothole to avoid while making the switch to a new engine. 

Conclusion

Football Manager 26 is a tough beast to nail down. It's still a deeply immersive football simulation experience, albeit with some major hiccups. 

The many UI issues are rough, though not totally unsurprising, given the very public engine switch. But it does give off the vibe of a game that needed just a little more time in the proverbial oven.

Still, players are more knowledgeable and understanding of game development than ever. No sports game takes a hiatus and leaps to a new engine without problems. 

Odds are, players hopping on at launch will continue to enjoy the best football simulation series out while it gradually improves with each update, if not playing a key hand in the feedback that goes into it in the first place. 

While calling Football Manager 26 the best in the series to date would be a stretch, it's by far the most promising release and, if nothing else, it's nice to see the series back and the arrow pointing up.